Rob Hall Got More Than He Bargained for When He Agreed to Coach the Boys’ and Girls’ Teams at Oak Park High This Season, Forcing Him to Work. . . : Double Time

Their backs straight, their hands clutching clipboards and pencils, members of the Oak Park High girls’ basketball team stand along the mid-court line taking notes as Rob Hall walks 10 boys through a series of plays.

“You guys notice I’m still searching for a [shooting guard]?” Hall asks the girls in a conspiratorial tone. “Every day it’s a different guy there and every day they get it wrong.”

Hall, the affable disciplinarian who has coached the Oak Park boys’ team for 10 years, isn’t looking for advice. His players know the issue is not up for debate.

“A big part of our success is that they don’t question why I do things,” Hall said.

But what was Hall thinking earlier this year when he agreed to coach the boys’ and girls’ teams at Oak Park? The full-time history teacher and father of four young children seemed to already have a full plate.

The energetic Hall talked about making a long-term commitment to both programs.

That was before he coached 19 games in the season’s first 21 days. Naps and optimism have proved poor substitutes for full nights of sleep and time with his family, convincing Hall he will coach only one team next season.

“This is a one-year gig,” he said. “My wife rarely sees me, and when she does see me, I’m asleep.”

Hall and his wife, Gretchen, recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary. Gretchen, who brings the couple’s children to games, can’t say she wasn’t consulted before Hall agreed to coach two teams. It was her idea.

“It was dumb, in retrospect, because we don’t see him much anymore,” Gretchen said with a laugh. “But he had been talking about a switch [to the girls’ team] and I said no, no, try them both before you decide.”

Hall spends much of his time on a basketball court or in a bus.

His boys’ team has won four Tri-Valley League titles in the last five years. But with only one senior starter, it has started 3-6 against larger schools.

The girls’ team (4-7) is adjusting to its third coach in four years and also is rebuilding, starting two freshmen and two sophomores.

“I’m not treating anyone differently,” Hall said. “If the girls make mistakes, they’re hearing about it.”

However, girls’ player Cori Grover says Hall doesn’t treat both teams the same.

“I’ve seen a lot of the guys’ games and he doesn’t yell at us like he yells at them,” Grover said. “I know a couple of games he’s wanted to scream at us, but he’s kept his cool.”

Hall, a 1981 Chatsworth High graduate who did not play varsity basketball, arrived at Santa Paula High in 1988 and was an assistant coach for two seasons under Tom Donahue.

Hall was hired at Oak Park for the 1991-92 season. The Eagles, 0-20 the previous season, finished 7-15 and have become one of Ventura County’s strongest small-school programs.

“He was always looking for new ideas and was very intolerant of people who weren’t working hard or making the right play,” Donahue said.

While Hall guided the boys’ team with a steady hand, the Oak Park girls’ team suffered from a revolving door of coaches. Several senior players quit in the middle of last season, when the Eagles finished 4-13.

“[The girls’ team] was not respected because there had been no continuity in the program,” Principal Cliff Moore said. “It was a priority that we had a quality program like we had with the boys’ team.”

Hall said he was approached last summer by the parents of Oak Park girls’ players, but he initially dismissed their suggestions that he take over the team. Hall later discussed coaching both teams with Moore, and when the principal had not found a girls’ coach by the start of school, the idea gained merit.

“It just kind of evolved,” Hall said. “There wasn’t a day when [Moore] named me head coach. He just talked about it more and more and it became obvious I was going to do it.”

Hall runs the girls’ program the same as the boys’, with teams on all levels running a fast-break, motion offense and employing similar defensive principles.

Practices are overlapped so the girls’ team can learn from the boys’ team, a move Hall says has increased the players’ concentration.

Hall delegates much of the coaching responsibilities on the girls’ team to Lindsay Struthers, an assistant who formerly worked with the Cal State Northridge women’s team and who has coached many Oak Park players in summer leagues.

Hall has missed one girls’ game this season and said the boys’ team will win any conflicts for his time. Despite this, Grover, the girls’ team captain, said Hall is making a balanced commitment.

“I thought he might spend more time with the guys’ team because that’s been his team for so long,” said Grover, a four-year varsity starter. “But it’s been completely equal and I love that.”

Grover said morale on the girls’ team is markedly better, despite the players’ initial shock at adjusting to Hall’s no-nonsense style.

“Before it just didn’t seem like we were a team, and now we’re a unit,” Grover said. “Some people would rather have fun and be OK with losing, but playing for him and having to give 100% all the time is a better feeling.”

Despite the team’s lack of fundamental skills, a third-place league finish and an automatic Southern Section playoff berth would seem within reach for the Eagles, who last qualified for the playoffs in the 1996-97 season.

“I told the girls we’re going to be a lot better team in January,” Hall said. “We’re focusing on defense and not turning the ball over.”

Moore, the Oak Park principal, has expressed concern that coaching two teams could infringe on Hall’s health and family relations. But Moore is convinced the move has been beneficial to both teams.

“When you have someone of Rob’s caliber, you want them to affect as many students as possible,” Moore said. “He has a leadership style that helps kids reach their goals, and you can’t ask more of a coach and educator.”